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GTA Myths Wiki:Spotting and Knowing a Hoax
Introduction First off, this article is not meant to discourage myth hunters. If anything, it's to clear the air of the thought that faking something is just as good as finding it. That is simply not the case. Discovery is its own reward and people have a hard time realizing that on occasion. This article was originally written by The Funktasm and Gunshow2 with additions over time by other users. Warning We would also like to warn that any reposting of these images will be immediately debunked, and if it's here, there will be a warning given. These are here for an education, not for trolling people online to make up for one's lot in life. To start on the subject at hand, first, we should talk about the simplest things to look at and notice. When you see any suspicious image, several things are easy signs of a hoax. The images on this page were created solely with the intention of illustrating common themes in hoaxes, for use on this page only. The creators of these images are not hoaxers themselves and do not claim that they are legitimate. They are only here for education purposes. The Clues These clues are as follows: *Many hoaxers fear accountability, either claiming a friend sent it to them, or actually sending their hoax to a friend, who inevitably spreads it for them. **It is a good idea to look at the pronouns used during a story if a hoaxer claims that a friend sent them the hoax, but types in the first person or flip flops between first and third, it is most likely a hoax. *Many hoaxes have logical issues. It stands to reason, that if you're using a capture card, that you could capture more than one picture before you die in an animal attack. Know the game and you'll know a hoax. **Similarly, it stands to reason they would have been recording footage instead of or in addition to screencaps. *Many hoaxers are lazy. In many cases, a short google image search along the lines of what they've claimed is in-game is enough to find the source image. Once you have it, overlaying it on the photoshopped image and getting it to line up just about perfectly is a sure sign of a hoax. *On this same note, some even try to pass off unclear MSPaint silhouettes in the background as more dramatic evidence. **Videos do this, though with the overused film technique of only showing a second of whatever is going on, and then revisiting it with enough zoom and slow down to see it. *Hoaxers use what's available to them. What this means is that the hoaxes will only get harder to identify as their capabilities increase (look at SA and myth mods.) *Hoaxers are not true believers. Generally, they make up a rather strange mishmash of a story, or simply pick something already suspected in the game. **If the original poster agrees with the first dissenter who calls it out, then the original post is much more likely to be a hoax. *In any game, "I randomly died when I wasn't watching the screen" doesn't count for much. *Many fakers often time their videos oddly, for example, recording right when they encountered a myth rather than beforehand, or turning their TV's volume up right before a loud noise is heard. While not always the case, a viewer should be suspicious if they see a recording DURING an encounter or volume being raised right BEFORE a sound. *If a photograph does not focus directly on a myth, it is more than likely than a hoaxer simply photoshopped an official screenshot. The next set of clues is for the much tougher subject of modded-in or otherwise unprocessed images of myths and hoaxes. *No matter the popularity of myths like Pyramid Head and Jason, without a copyright notice in the game or its manual, Rockstar can't do any more than parody them. *Most of the models and textures in the game have a consistent style. When a picture is real but has a new model added in, try to compare it to something similar. *Google for CLEO mods of suspicious myths. It's risky, considering some are more tribute than anything else, but that doesn't stop a hoaxer from passing it off. *Remember how GTA V's myths work. There are likely triggers for any real GTA myth. If they're in a known location and just find something where people have been, over and over, then it's definitely suspicious. Not immediate confirmation of a hoax, but suspicious without anything else to go on. *Watch to see if the HUD is even in the picture, or even Carl. Often hoaxers will change CJ's model and literally take a screencap of themselves. *Look for context and know what's important. An effective hoaxer uses details. Some of these will be so slight, and easy to mistake or fake, that they can't be accepted as evidence without a side-by-side comparison of how it varies from creating those details yourself. Dead NPCs, voices, explosions, etc. Their Methods But the most important logical tool of all is asking questions. Reactions and answers say a lot. The second most important thing is knowing a hoax when you see it. 'Editing in Post' Take this one, for instance, designed to illustrate common traits of hoaxes. It may be a bit blurry, but the UFO is rather clear. Also that there's a somewhat obnoxious zoom panel, although it is not a 100% sure sign of a hoax, it proves that the image was edited in post. In any case, this wouldn't be a clear enough picture in real life, let alone a game programmed with certain triggerable or repeatable occurrences. 'Silhouettes' This next one is a bit more familiar. This is more convincing because not only does it have what appears to be a model in it, it's also a closer picture. On closer scrutiny however, it looks enormous, or as though it's floating. Another detail is none of it protrudes from behind the tree, and that it's rather stiff and blocky looking on some parts, and oddly smooth and free of jagged vertices. For comparison, CJ's legs have very pointy folds, and he's an important, omnipresent model in the game, demanding higher quality than scenery or pedestrians. 'Photo of the Player' This next one is possibly the most common form of hoaxing images. As stated above, you should be looking for a player model within a myth sighting to make sure the eyewitness has not just taken a photo of themselves. In this photo example, the player has put on a convincing set of clothes and claimed to be Leatherface. Due to the lack of an HUD or CJ, it is obvious this was just a photo of the player themselves. In some GTA games, the player has a camera, so this is not a 100 percent clear notification of a hoax. In GTA San Andreas, Grove Street gang members can photograph CJ, so sightings within SA would be taken with more scrutiny. 'Contrasting Photos' The next set of images is two faked Chupacabra images. It illustrates how a hoaxer may literally just assemble one out of whatever screenshot and pictures they can find. We can see that the lighting is very drastically different from other animals in the scene. We can also see a certain roughness to the added in monster, and even a difference in lighting color. It's also literally an early result for "Chupacabra" on Google Images. Also notable is the lack of specific zoom or focus on the monster itself. This implies the picture was not originally of a monster or myth. 'Creature doesn't Look Like in Game Model' The same goes here, only even more. The monster looks nothing like a GTA V model, clearly just being a common Chupacabra image. 'Blurry Creature in the Distance' This is another example of a common hoaxing method. By drawing a blurry, distant figure, many hoaxers try to get undue attention for very vague sightings. This ranges from half-decent photoshops, to horrible quality MSPaint stick figures that are actually a photograph in their zoomed in panel. To be Continued This Article will continue to display hoaxes and break them down for the point of education. Category:Myths Category:False Myths Category:Photo Evidence Category:Video Evidence